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Which words grate on you?

OMG. You know what’s totes ridic? The number of new words I’m overhearing in tween and twenty-somethings’ conversations.

From the OMGs to the whatevs, it seems like every word has been condensed and replaced with one or two syllable versions of its former self. Totally has become ‘totes.’ People has become ‘peeps.’ Professional is ‘profesh.’ And then there’s the word combinations. Awesomesauce, anyone?

What’s even more ridic is that suddenly I’m totes finding myself using this words in everyday conversation. My friends are now my ‘babez’. When I feel indifferent about something, ‘whatevs’ says it all. And when I go home to visit the ‘fam’, I don’t go to Melbourne, I go to ‘Melbies’.

I keep telling myself it’s just a passing phase. That these words – which are ruining the English language BTW IMHO – will go away. (BTW IMHO = by the way, in my honest opinion). But the addition of ‘devo’ (colloquial for devastated) to the online Macquarie dictionary earlier this year is probably a good indication that the English language evolves and these words are here to stay.

If you could eliminate a word (or two) from the English language what would it be?

That’s the question the New Yorker asked of its readers recently in an online game they called Questioningly. They asked readers to nominate the words they hate via Facebook and Twitter and the suggestions flooded in:

Words came in, marked for death. Popular objects of dissatisfaction included “awesome” and “epic” (pointlessly inflationary), “phlegm” and “fecund” (pointedly ugly), “bling” and “swag” (self-conscious slanguage), “impacted” and “efforting” (boardroom blather), “like” and “but” (only ever taking up space), and “irregardless” and “inflammable” (are they even words?). That was how the pack travelled, in the main.

If Mamamia’s Managing Editor Lana had her way, she’d probably remove the word ‘moist‘ from the English language. News Editor Rick is not a fan of ‘whilst’ (“it’s not a real word, people!”) or ‘utilize’ (“that’s just an inefficient way of saying use”). And for Editorial Assistant Nat it’s the word ‘flannel’ (she just doesn’t like it).

I could do without the words ‘blog’ (I think it’s ugly) and ‘irregardless’ (not a word!). And of course, ‘OMG’ and ‘ridic’ are top of my list. But before they’re eliminated from the English language entirely, I should probably work on removing them from my own daily conversations.